The Osceola times., 1887-03-05

Turpentine is the product of the long
leaf pine, whose growth covers large
areas in several counties Of Eastern
North Carolina, where the working of
the tree is the principal industry.
North Carolina has for years held the
lead in the product of turpentine. In
1850 her output amounted to 6,279, POO
gallons; of rosin, 66,39 barrels. and
$4,000 barrels of tar. the total value
reaching nearly $S.000.000. This does
not take into account the lumber which
is made from the yellow, or long-leaf,
pine after il has been exhausted as a
turpentine producer. Some years ago
the turpentne business was much more
actively carried on in this State than
for the last two orthree years preceding
1856, because it was then much more
profitable. Along in 1875 To 1873 the
turpentine business was the "short
cut to wealth, and fortunes were rap-
idly piled up by those who pushed their
business with energy. Then the de-
mand for all the products of the long
leaf pine was active ard the prices were
good, and nearly eTery man in the pine
belt who owned or could rent few
thousand Tees went at the business.
Inc Consequence was that the market
waa "glutted,' prices dropped and the
demand ceased. The industry is, how
ever, reviviug again.
The turpentne or long-leaf pine re-
gion of North Carolina lies east Of the
Great Pee Dee river. which crosses the
State near its center and is the dividing
line between the hill country and the
lowlands or sandy section. A large
body of long-leaf pines is called a
"ilat," and one could not well imagine
more desolate place than one of these
flats. 1t covers probably five hundred
acres-sometimes great deal more
and one may traverse its entire length
and breadth without seeing so much as
a daisy or blue bell, the most common
of flowers, to relieve the monotony of
pines. 1t is literally forest of pines,
which rear their giant forms forty,
sixty, a hundred feet high. The trunks
are invariably las straight as an ar
row. aha free from limb or branch un-
I'll within about fifteen feet of the top,
where the limbs branch out and give
the top the appearance of an expanded
umbrella. There is no underground.
save now and then scraggy blackjack
or gum which attains to only very
small size Nearly every forest has its
swamp, ore' boy" as the rustics call
them, which are very prolific of mocca-
sin snakes, frogs and mosquitoes, the
only living things which inhabit them
nowadays, though they used to be a
"sheltering refuge" during the days OF
slavery for runaway negroes, and for
deserters during the war. The swamps
vary in width from fifty yards to five
miles, and are covered with an almost
impenetrable growth of gum aud alder
bushes, bamboo briers, wire grass, ETC.,
with here and there large poplar oil
cypress, and through all runs or creep'
black. sluggish stream.
Every turpentine forest, no matter
how large, is divided up into crops o.
5000 to 10000 trees. The first step IN
working virgin forest is the boxing O
the trees. For this purpose an axe
much longer and narrower than the or
dinary "club axe" is used, and 1t oc
cupies the time Of two men for weel
or ten days in boxing a crop. The boz
is cut on the side of the tree most ex
posed to the sun and about two fee
from the ground. 1t is eight to tel
inches across the face and about fou
inches deep. shaped somewhat like tn
buckets in grain elevator. Each boz
holds from . pint to . quart Of turpen
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